A Border Deal for Better and Worse

The information about Cambodia’s border deal with Vietnam is long on gobbledygook and short on real details (read more here (pdf), here (pdf) and here).

It’s hard to determine whether the agreement would be fair, good and just for the country, but it’s clear that there will be as little democracy in the process as possible. A few people have questioned whether the prime minister stomped over the country’s constitution to make the deal. And Hun Sen has already arrested one critic (read more here (pdf) and here) of the agreement and promised to arrest others who disagree (pdf).

It's pretty hard to make anyone - from countrymen to the world - believe a deal is credible when you arrest its critics.